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Bibigo, CJ’s global Korean food brand, it held the event to demonstrate Bibimbap at London.

In less than a week since its July 25 launch in London, CJ’s global Korean food brand “Bibigo” (www.bibigo.com) became the country’s first food brand that invited Baron Sebastian Coe, Chief of the 2012 Olympic Games Organization Committee, and other 300 VIPs to Bibigo dinner laced with Korean traditional foods at the world-renowned Victoria & Albert Museum in London on July 30 (local time). The dinner event was greeted with celebrating remarks. In particular, it drew attention in that the event introduced Bibimbap, a pronoun for Korean traditional food, to VIPs at the world-renowned British royal museum, a symbol of Britain’s cultural pride.

On July 31 (local time), Bibigo, CJ’s global Korean food brand, announced that under the sponsorship of CJ renowned as Lifestyle Company, it held the event to demonstrate Bibimbap, one of the most representative Korean traditional foods, at Victoria & AlbertMuseum, reputed as the world’s largest decorative art museum for the first time. The V&AMuseum, one of UK’s royal museum, has unrivaled presence in the area of decorative art and handcraft and is noted for the spectacular size and unparalleled reputation in the world. The museum, which was founded in 1852, has a 150-year-long history and holds massive size of art library, more than 145 galleries and 5 million artworks, attracting about 3 million visitors per year.

Roh Hui-young, a managing director of Bibigo who has orchestrated effort to introduce the event in addition to directly demonstrating Bibimbap, said, “The event held at the historic place called “The V&A Museum with a 150-year history” required ever more effort and energy than any other events of the kind. The event designed to treat Korean traditional but contemporarily reinterpreted food to about 300 VIPs known as gourmets was never an easy attempt. Thanks to our know-how accumulated through the various demonstrations of Korean traditional foods branded “Bibigo,” however, the event could end up with success.” CJ also said, “The event gave opinion leaders in the UK as well as people from different countries who visited UK to watch Olympic Games an opportunity to experience Korea’s unique flavor and beauty. In particular, Bibigo was hailed as the next-generation food brand that has potential to stir up the Korean wave and is expected to grow into the world-renowned Korean food brand.”

The event was finished around 12 p.m. Until then, most of the invited VIPs took their seats to taste various Korean foods. The event began with the opening remark by Director Roh Hui-young, in which all attendants closely watched chefs’ dexterous hand movements and applauded Korean foods recreated through contemporary interpretation. Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, who approved providing the hall for the event, expressed applause over the excellence of Korean foods and delivered compliments to CJ that sponsored the event, proposing toast. He said, “We fully understand that the Korean traditional foods introduced today were specially recreated in a way that allows foreigners to enjoy the food without trouble. The Bibigo foods introduced today were all beautiful and very good to taste.”

The major figures who appeared in the event include Baron Sebastian Coe, Olympic Chief, Vice London Mayor Edward Lister, V&A Director Martin Roth, South Bank Center Director June Kelly, Edinburgh International Festival Director Jonathan Mills and Design Museum Director Dejan Sujik, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Gwang-shik, KOC Member Park Yong-seong, CJ Brand Strategy Director Roh Hui-young, CJ Foodvill CEO Heo Min-hoi and Fashion Designer Lee Sang-bong. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by Korea Culture & Information Service and KoreanCultureCenter in the UK as part of the 100-day Korean culture program “Wearing Splendid Korean Color” in London. The event was carried out together with Lee Sang-bong’s fashion show titled “Dancheong.”

Meanwhile, Bibigo is highly recognized as the next-generation food brand that can promote the universality of Korean food and raise the status of Korean traditional foods. LA Times’ business section dealt with Korean food and introduced Bibigo as one of the Korean representative brand that advanced into the U.S. market. The state-owned PBS, a broadcaster in the U.S., recently aired documentary “Kimchi chronicle,” which introduced Bibigo as one of the Korean representative Bibimbap brands. In addition, Bibigo is gaining appeal among consumers in Singapore and other overseas markets and is increasingly recognized as the next-generation representative Korean food brand and contents.